Monday, December 16, 2013

Make It a Disney FROZEN Day: Special FROZEN Lunch and Toy Ideas To Do With Your Kids!

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A few days ago, my family and I had the chance to have an amazing weekend together experiencing Disney's new movie FROZEN. We made some unforgettable memories together complete with Sven Sandwiches and Olaf Banana Snowmen. Christmas break is just around the corner so I thought I would tell you a little bit about what we did and give you some ideas for how you can make your own FROZEN memories this holiday season! All you need is a movie theatre, some FROZEN Walmart toys, and a little creativity.

My kids and I started off going together to Walmart to pick up some of Disney's new FROZEN toys and books. We did this a few days before our FROZEN weekend and I will tell you why in a minute. Hopefully you are close to a Walmart with a Subway Sandwich restaurant inside, because they have limited edition keychains that you will not want to miss out on. Not only that, but Subway carries the Fresh Fit For Kids meals in FROZEN reusable bags complete with FROZEN puzzles. My kids loved these healthy meals. My daughter uses the bag for school lunches and my son loves the Olaf the snowman keychain.

For the rest of our shopping trip, I had my kids pick out FROZEN toys and books to donate to needy kids in our city. They had so much fun picking out toys for other kids once I explained that these might be the only Christmas presents some children would get. The other fun thing about this is that I knew I would let them pick a couple of toys to keep as a special treat during the FROZEN weekend coming up.

There was such a great selection of FROZEN toys at Walmart to choose from! My kids picked out Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff dolls along with Olaf the snowman and Sven the reindeer stuffed animals. They also chose a number of FROZEN coloring and activity books. Honestly, there were so many great toys in stock, I would have had a hard time if it was my choice!

Two days later, the fun continued. While my kids were up playing in their rooms, my wife and I set up a surprise FROZEN lunch for them to go along with the toys. This took some creativity, but it was worth it. We displayed the toys so they could pick two toys to keep and play with while they ate their lunch. We also played the FROZEN soundtrack so they could hear all the fun songs. Below you can see some pictures and video of the toys and also the recipe for Sven Sandwiches and Olaf Banana Snowmen. These were two of my kid's favorite characters. Also, If you haven't heard the hilarious FROZEN songs Reindeer Are Better than People and In Summer, you are missing out.

Ingredients:

Sven Sandwich

--2 googly candy eyes

--2 large pretzels

--1 serving peanut butter and jam

--1 slice sourdough bread

--2 slices whole wheat bread

--1 piece of nori (dried seaweed)

Olaf Banana Snowman

--1 banana

--1 pretzel

--3 raisins

--2 googly candy eyes

--1 piece of shredded wheat

--1 small square piece of marshmallow

--1 small triangle piece of carrot

--Blue food coloring

Directions:

Sven Sandwich

1. Cut a circle out of the sourdough bread. You can use a cookie cutter or even a kids size cup to make a perfect circle. Use scraps from this bread to cut two small half moon shape pieces to go behind the googly eyes. Cut a second smaller circle out of the wheat bread.2. Make the head shape out of the other slice of wheat bread. Use the picture below as a guide. It is kind of a triangle like shape with pointy ears. Spread peanut butter on one side and jam on the other. Place triangle bread piece on large sourdough circle with peanut butter side up. Place smaller wheat bread circle on top of triangle piece of bread. Put half moon bread pieces above the smaller wheat bread circle.3. Cut three pieces out of the nori, two tear drops for the nose and one smiley piece for the mouth. Place nori pieces on small wheat bread circle as shown in picture.4. Break two pretzels into large pieces for the reindeer antlers. Slide them in between the sourdough circle and peanut butter covered triangle piece, right above his ears. Finish by placing the candy eyes on the half moon shape pieces. You can paste them on with peanut butter if desired.

Olaf Banana Snowman

1. Slice three pieces off of a banana. Make one large, one medium, and one smaller. Arrange banana pieces on plate with largest piece on the bottom and smallest piece on top of that. Medium sized piece will be used for the head. Press one raisin into middle piece and two raisins into bottom piece.2. On top piece, press googly eyes in towards the top. Draw a smiley mouth with blue food coloring and toothpick. Put small marshmallow square on top of smile for Olaf's teeth. Place triangle carrot nose above teeth. You can also use dried apricot or dried mango instead of carrot.3. Poke shredded wheat into the top of banana piece for his hair. Break pretzel into two pieces and slide those pieces underneath middle banana for arms.4. Finish by cutting off one more thin slice of banana. Cut the slice in quarters and put two pieces underneath Olaf as feet.

For Both Sven and Olaf:

You can also garnish the plate with snowflake shaped cookies or chocolate covered pretzels. Of course no FROZEN lunch would be complete without hot chocolate. Don't forget to pile the mugs high with marshmallows! I used homemade marshmallows (made by Mary Huggett our other recipe writer here at Lunchbox Dad) because they are square and look like ice, but you can use your child's favorite variety.

My kids had a blast playing with their FROZEN Walmart toys while eating lunch. My daughter chose the Anna doll and Sven reindeer stuffed animal. My son chose the Kristoff doll and the Olaf toy stuffed animal. Little did they know what would happen next...going to see FROZEN in the movie theatre! If this is too much to do in one day you could always spread it out over a weekend, but a matinee after lunch is always great. Make sure that your kids bring their FROZEN toys with them to see the movie, it makes the experience that much more fun!

FROZEN was fantastic! it was entertaining for both kids and adults. Disney really put a good message into it. We were so impressed with the movie that we are definitely going to be buying it when it comes out on video. What about those other toys that we were going to donate? My kids had the opportunity to take them and drop them at the donation spot themselves so that other kids could have a special Christmas as well. By the way, the Sven and Olaf stuffed animals were such a hit that my kids didn't want to let them go, even when they went to bed!

So I encourage you to take a little time with your kids over Christmas break and do a FROZEN day. It will be something your family will always remember. You can use the ideas here or tell me below what ideas you have to make Disney's FROZEN a part of your Christmas!

Thanks Stephanie! My kids weren't the only ones who loved those characters, I thought they were hilarious too. I had to make a recipe about them. We try and help our kids see beyond themselves and when kids get that they are helping other children their age, many times they have so much fun with it! I hope this can inspire other parents to try it out if they don't already.